RE: Concerns with Accessibe joining W3C

It would not be the first time an overlay company joined the ranks of the W3C.

Chris O'Brien
Director of Accessibility
Legal and Litigation



OLG Internal
From: Sheri Byrne Haber <sbyrnehaber@vmware.com>
Sent: Thursday, May 27, 2021 12:51 PM
To: w3c-WAI-ig@w3.org
Subject: Concerns with Accessibe joining W3C

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Accessibe announced yesterday that they are planning on joining (or have joined, I'm not sure which) W3C.

Please refer to https://accessibe.com/company/roadmap<https://can01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Faccessibe.com%2Fcompany%2Froadmap&data=04%7C01%7Cchrobrien%40olg.ca%7Cc75b56c6c6fa4579fd2008d921303fbc%7Cf271d9b4e54c46e182bd25d50afa3779%7C0%7C0%7C637577314243080309%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C2000&sdata=iNAWnDYwrnYr1RVac0dyOUjv9Yj73yfwr%2BOFme6gAKw%3D&reserved=0> for details

For those of you not familiar with AccessiBe, they are probably the largest and certainly the loudest of the "accessibility overlay" companies.  They make claims about one line of code and a small monthly payment eliminating accessibility lawsuit risk. In reality, 10 % of lawsuits now being filed (including the lawsuit against ADP filed by Lighthouse) are against plaintiffs using these overlays because they can't and don't make a site WCAG compliant. There is a website called OverlayFactSheet.com started by Karl Groves, where over 400 accessibility professionals (including me) have signed a public commitment not to support solutions that take away user's assistive technology and substitute another tool in its place.

Clearly, I have significant reservations about W3C accepting any overlay/tool/widget company as a member.  I've looked on the W3C website and do not see any membership code of ethics.  We did spend quite a bit of time developing one for IAAP.

Am I alone in this, or is this a general concern?

Thanks,

Sheri

Sheri Byrne-Haber (She/Her/Hers)
Staff II, Accessibility Architect